Incidents on tour

When actress Maie Ash was shadowed by a private detective while she was on tour, her affair with a colleague was confirmed...

Stanley Francis Hicks, better known as actor Stanley Brett, came from an influential theatrical family. His brother was actor-manager Seymour Hicks, and Stanley himself had been on the stage since he was 20 years old.

Seymour Hicks, Stanley Brett’s brother and Maie Ash’s brother-in-law

When, on 26 June 1909, he married Eleanor Eugenie Ash, known professionally as Maie Ash, he cemented his position as part of the British theatrical world, now being married to a beautiful and talented actress. They had met after she had gone on a South African tour with Seymour Hicks' company; keeping it in the family, Stanley proposed to his brother's colleague. At the time of their marriage, Stanley was 34 and Maie was 20. Within a year of their wedding, the couple had a daughter, Margaret Mabel Ellaline Hicks, who would be their only child.

Maie Ash (image via Sludge G on Flickr)

The marriage was not happy for long. Stanley made the mistake of introducing his wife to a comedian, Fred Allandale, who Stanley would later disparagingly refer to as a "Blackpool pierrot". Soon, Maie was disappearing at weekends, and Stanley became suspicious of what she was doing, and who she was with. Maie claimed to be visiting their daughter, who presumably was with a wet nurse, but Stanley thought this was a lie. He therefore employed a private detective to watch his wife.

The private detective in question was Charles William Adams. Charles was a Devonian, born in that county in 1874, the son of coachman Eton Adams and his wife Mary. The Adams family relocated to Paddington when Charles was young, and he remained there until he married Jessie Payne in 1899. Charles and Jessie settled in Willesden, where Charles worked as a clerk. Their marriage was short, but not due to divorce: Jessie died, aged only 31, in 1906. Charles never remarried. Instead, he moved in with a colleague, Albert Ansell (who I wrote about last week); both men worked for James Stockley's detective agency, and after being widowed, Charles' friend and colleague offered him a home.   

Charles commonly described himself as a clerk rather than a detective, but he certainly undertook detective jobs for Stockley's agency. The Maie Ash case was one. In September 1912, on a Saturday night, he watched Maie leave the Empire Theatre in Nottingham, where she had been performing as part of a theatrical tour, and travel by train to Manchester. She arrived there at 2.45am. The detective's job often involved long hours and a lack of sleep.

On arriving at the station, Maie was met on the platform by Fred Allandale, who kissed her when they met. The pair then walked to the Queen's Hotel, followed by the stealthy Charles Adams. He watched Maie for long enough to be able to ascertain that she and Fred were a couple, and that they stayed at the hotel together. The shadowing of Maie was described in the press as ‘incidents on tour’. Charles’ evidence was enough to get Stanley Brett a divorce, which was finalised in 1913. Two years later, Maie Ash married Fred Allandale, but - like Charles Adams and his wife Jessie - they did not get to enjoy a long marriage. In 1921, Fred died, and Maie died two years later, in Brighton, aged 35.

Charles Adams would continue to live with Albert Ansell and his family until at least 1921. Although I don't know for sure what happened to him after this, I believe he may have died in south London in the early 1930s. He was a man who had experienced sadness in his personal life, but he found fulfilment and friendship in his professional one. He also got results.